Javed Hashmi

Arrest

Javed Hashmi

On 29 October 2003, he was arrested from Parliament Building on charges of inciting mutiny made by General Pervez Musharraf. Earlier, in a press conference on 20 October, 2003, he had read a letter that he received in mail, signed anonymously by some active military officers at Pakistan Army's Combatant Headquarter, known as The Generals Headquarter (GHQ), calling for an investigation into the corruption in the armed forces and criticizing the President and Chief of Army Staff General Pervez Musharraf, and his relationship with the American President George W. Bush. His trial was held in the central Adiala Jail instead of a district and sessions court at the Lahore High Court, which raised doubts among human rights groups about its fairness. On 12 April 2004, he was sentenced to 23 years in prison for inciting mutiny in the army, forgery, and defamation.

The verdict has widely been considered as a willful miscarriage of justice by the General Pervez Musharraf's Government. All opposition parties in Pakistan, including Pakistan Peoples Party of the former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and six party-alliance Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), regarded the verdict to be politically motivated by the ruling junta with malicious intent, declaring him to be a political prisoner. In imprisonment he also wrote two books titled as "Haan, Main Baaghi Hoon!" (Yes, I am a 'Rebel!') and "takhta daar ke saaye tale" (Under the Stage's shadow). His book, "Yes, I am a 'Rebel'!", Hashmi clearly stated that he was jailed because he demanded a commission to be formed to investigate the Kargil issue, the restoration of democracy and opposed the Army’s role in politics, and Pakistan's geostrategy policy in central Asia and Europe.

On 3 August 2007, a three-member bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan under Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry granted him bail after serving approximately three and a half years in prison. Javed Hashmi was released from the Central Jail Kotlakhpat in Lahore on 4 August 2007.

He was again placed under arrest at the declaration of a state of emergency on 3 November 2007.